Not only is there the fact that life is worth living for life's sake, we get to watch as the charlatans scramble to explain why their oh-so-divine prophecies failed again. I don't think laughing at the failures will ever get old :P.

On the other hand, I can't help but feel more than a little sad for all the well-meaning but credulous saps who potentially ruined their lives preparing for the ridiculous

I've got an idea that Camping could use that would not only get him off the hook but also get him some sympathy from his followers... He could claim to have been possessed by The Devil! He could go through an exorcism and pretend to have had the demon cast out of him. He could explain that The Devil wanted to damage the credibility of Christianity by placing these thoughts in his mind.

Just had a epic debate with 2 christians on twitter. Twitter sucks with it's 140 limit. Hard to get a reasoned response together while being bombarded with tweets from 2 foes.

What pissed me off was that the 1 guy would say "You're being the same as the fundamentalist" when I pointed out absurdities, yet he would say he still believed even though the stories aren't "Perfectly correct"

Do you think it's possible he will come out saying that the rapture had occurred - but that nobody was deemed worthy enough to be raptured?

He is going to have to gather up (and manipulate) some usual earth quake reports from that day to justify it but i think it's possible. It'll at least give him 5 more months to stock up on cash and misled flock.

There was a UFO cult in the 1950s that predicted they would be saved by extraterrestrials a few hours before the end of the world. When it didn't happen, the person who "received" the communications from the ETs claimed to have been told it was because their group had "spread so much light" that the world was saved. So, all Camping has to do is say that prayers of the faithful convinced god to postpone the Rapture/Apocalypse.

I think homophobic guy called out of sympathy for the deluded Christians. He was making a declaration of his own stupidity.He was saying, "sure i'm an atheist but i'm also an arse hole."So, some common ground there with the non raptured.

As mentioned already, picking up homophobic guy on the term was a bit of a missed opportunity.English is full of misnomers that stuck because of usage. Homophobia is really a misnomer from the word go. It's a bit like calling a racist a Negrophobic or something. The pathology might exist but it's not really describing the attitude of most people who don't like black people very accurately. But when someone says they are a homophobe, we generally know what they mean.

And that is why it could have been a valid call. He said he was an atheist (I think) and a homophobe and he was about to pull an evolutionary argument for why homophobia is "natural". I've seen that one before. It hinges on the 'disgust' reaction and it's complete and utter hogwash, of course.But it has some popularity and for that reason alone it would have been worth covering. A lot of newly atheist types seem to hang on to their anti gay opinions and invent spurious scientific arguments to justify it (I think it's actually been covered on the show before a bit). Correcting atheist misuses and misunderstandings of evolution is as valid and useful as correcting the religious when they do it.

(cute show anyways. Stream was a bit messed up so I'll have to check the stored version. I liked all the survivalist stuff though)

"Doesn't change the fact that despite the literal origin of the word is has a universal recognized definition of "robot"

Where I come from (australia) the term homophobe is rarely used to imply fear. So even using that manner of defining words he is still correct.

"Phobia comes from the Greek word φόβος (Phobos) and means "fear"

...but words aren't always used exactly as they were originally defined. Putting phobia on the end is a misnomer, unless you are actually accusing the person of having a mental illness. Which is rarely the case. A bigot is a bigot and shouldn't be let off because "it is a phobia".

For example people often misuse the word atheist and use it to mean "one who claims to know that god does not exist". This is the common usage. Would you allow someone to assert that is what atheism means?

"This guy probably meant to say "people often use it in a wrong way", which I would agree to. However, knowing this and describing himself as homophobic does still not make sense. "

He did say that.

Yes it does make sense, because he uses it correctly. Unlike every host on the show I have seen mention it. It has always annoyed me.

Was a bit hypocritical of the hosts I thought to tear into him on this, I mean why do they call themselves atheists even though they know this is a confusing term to a lot of people? same reason he called himself a homophobe probably.

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PLEASE NOTE: The Atheist Experience has moved to a new location, and this blog is now closed to comments. To participate in future discussions, please visit http://www.freethoughtblogs.com/axp.The Atheist Experience is a weekly live call-in television show sponsored by the Atheist Community of Austin. This independently-run blog (not sponsored by the ACA) features contributions from current and former hosts and co-hosts of the show.